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A crime is not a crime
One of the fundamentals of living in society is that you are entitled to know whether something you might do is legal or not. How do you know? One starting point for individuals is the legal maxim 'Everything which is not forbidden is allowed'. In modern criminal law,
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Auntie Claus and the moral imperative
Auntie Claus is one of my favourite children's books. Our heroine lives in a New York penthouse. She is stylish, she wears a red velvet gown with white ermine trimming, and she is mysteriously absent from November to February every year. She has a famous brother. She also
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Green Party: Zionism is racism
Disclaimer: I am not a member of any political party, although my position is closer to the Greens than to other parties in a range of policy areas. Last Sunday, the Green Party annual conference voted in favour of a motion whose two headline points were: 1. Zionism is a
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Electoral reform in the UK
These are exciting times for electoral reformers. The Representation of the People Bill currently before Parliament includes a number of provisions designed to widen public participation in elections: lowering the voting age from 18 to 16, introducing automatic voter registration, and widening the forms of ID that must be produced
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Responses to bullying
In the early 1990s I was working in Prison Service Headquarters in London. One of my tasks was to write an anti-bullying strategy for prisons in England and Wales. This was commissioned following a series of incidents of self-harm in prisons which were attributable to bullying. As part
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Religion vs Politics
Today's Guardian website reports on a legal dispute between the Liberal Democrat Party and one of its former candidates, David Campanale. He was selected as the party's parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam in 2021, then deselected in 2023. He took the party to court, claiming
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Nazareth Center for Peace Studies
This is a remarkable organisation, working for peace and reconciliation, especially between Palestinians and Israelis. They are actually located in Nazareth so they are living in the eye of the storm. According to their website, their Vision is 'Promoting a culture of peace rooted in Christian values and nurturing
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The sin of empathy
In a world of constant bad news, it takes a lot to shock me. But I was shocked by this Guardian article from early in Trump's second term. Quite soon in the reign of the new American king (for the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has crowned
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The Peter Principle
This is a concept in management theory. Employees do a good job and are promoted to another job at the next level up. This may require different skills. They may succeed or not, but at some point, they will be promoted beyond the level where they can perform effectively. So
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The Clacton byelection: 13 August 2026
Just in: the result of the political non-contest of the year, the Clacton byelection. As expected, Farage got more votes than anywhere else. His total of 22,239 was slightly up on the 2024 general election where he received 21,225. His percentage of the vote share rose from
Politics
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